RPI’s Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble will host “Constellations” on April 9, a collaborative performance with student musicians and renowned artist Nick Dunston. The free concert will take place at 5 p.m. in the Theatre of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on RPI’s campus.

“Constellations” explores open-form, structured improvisation, using both acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as generative algorithms to guide parts of the performance. 

Nick Dunston is an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and sound artist based in Berlin. He has released numerous albums as a leader and collaborator with leading jazz and experimental musicians. His work spans trans-media composition and experimental performance, and he co-developed a course focused on media-driven approaches to music. 

Dunston will lead the students through the concert using conduction. This is a way of guiding musicians without a score, using only hand gestures, allowing players to improvise their parts while Dunston’s cues shape the overall form.

“The art of creating musical work as it is being performed, through improvisation, is both ancient and modern, at once,” said RPI Professor of Music and New Media Michael Century. “'Constellations' shows how its range of possibilities expands in the present day along with developments in improvisatory technologies.”

Featured in parts of the performance will be DJ Rekha, a well-known and highly regarded NYC-based DJ who is currently earning their Ph.D. in electronic arts at RPI.

Also featured in the performance will be Ph.D. student Joey Latka’s animated notation composition, Radix, which uses a generative algorithm in place of a traditional score. In Radix, musicians respond in real time to symbols appearing on a monitor, generated by Latka’s custom software. The system draws on a cross-mapping of the zodiac and the musical circle of fifths, prompting performers to improvise based on visual cues.

The Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble is made up of RPI undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines. The group is focused on the art of musical improvisation — “an art that is too often overlooked in music education, despite being  a central aspect of all music making.”